Papa Del’s Cherry Pie

My sweet father-in-law passed away this week. He was a good ‘ol boy from Iowa who loved fishing, baseball and sweets. (You know he and I bonded over our mutual love of sugar.)

I’m still a little shocked that he died. Even though he was on hospice, Del had survived numerous heart attacks (the first in his 40s!), strokes, cancer, and serious diabetes. We have always joked that nothing would take him short of an apocalypse, and even that was questionable.

He was suffering in the end though, so it’s best that he closed his eyes and let go of the pain. But even so, we miss him very much. He always had a story to tell and my three kiddos were the light of his life.

(Here’s Papa with little Lauren on one of our favorite beaches on Seabrook Island.)

And speaking of Lauren (who’s a little older now), look what she wrote in Papa’s memory book last night:

Papa and I did love our cakes, cookies, pies and confections. At Christmas a few years ago, my mom made her traditional cherry pie. Our family dies over this pie — it’s that good. We lick our plates. We lick our fingers. We even lick between our teeth to get one last morsel. So you can imagine, when Papa announced he’d take the last piece of cherry pie home I almost flipped my lid. My sisters say that the room got silent and my eyes popped out of my head. I don’t remember because I wasn’t present in that moment because SOMEONE WAS TRYING TO TAKE THE LAST PIECE OF PIE, DADGUMMIT!

I let him take it. I think. (I’m still a little fuzzy due to the trauma.)

Prepare your favorite pie crust (homemade or storebought) for an 8-inch lattice top pie. Line the bottom of an 8-inch pie plate with bottom crust.

Combine 3 cups pitted fresh ripe tart red cherries, 1 to 1 1/2 cups sugar, 3/4 cup flour, and a pinch of salt. Place in pie plate and dot with 2 tablespoons butter. Create lattice top and seal. Place on a large cookie sheet lined with foil (to catch overflow) and bake at 400 degrees for 50-55 minutes. Cover top loosely with foil as needed if crust is browning too quickly.

Meet Sugar Mama

Lindsay cooks from her Home on the Range in Kansas. She's won over $100K in recipe contests, but still struggles to please her picky taste-testers, ages 12, 9 and 4. She posts her kid-tested, hubby-approved recipes right here.